Thinking, Fast and Slow

By: Daniel Kahneman

Narrated by: Patrick Egan

Length: 20 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The guru to the gurus at last shares his knowledge with the rest of us. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's seminal studies in behavioral psychology, behavioral economics, and happiness studies have influenced numerous other authors, including Steven Pinker and Malcolm Gladwell. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman at last offers his own, first book for the general public. It is a lucid and enlightening summary of his life's work. It will change the way you think about thinking.

Two systems drive the way we think and make choices, Kahneman explains: System One is fast, intuitive, and emotional; System Two is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. Examining how both systems function within the mind, Kahneman exposes the extraordinary capabilities as well as the biases of fast thinking and the pervasive influence of intuitive impressions on our thoughts and our choices. Engaging the reader in a lively conversation about how we think, he shows where we can trust our intuitions and how we can tap into the benefits of slow thinking, contrasting the two-system view of the mind with the standard model of the rational economic agent.

Kahneman's singularly influential work has transformed cognitive psychology and launched the new fields of behavioral economics and happiness studies. In this path-breaking book, Kahneman shows how the mind works, and offers practical and enlightening insights into how choices are made in both our business and personal lives - and how we can guard against the mental glitches that often get us into trouble.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2011 Daniel Kahneman (P)2011 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“A tour de force... Kahneman’s book is a must read for anyone interested in either human behavior or investing. He clearly shows that while we like to think of ourselves as rational in our decision making, the truth is we are subject to many biases. At least being aware of them will give you a better chance of avoiding them, or at least making fewer of them.” (Larry Swedroe, CBS News)

“A major intellectual event... The work of Kahneman and Tversky was a crucial pivot point in the way we see ourselves.” (David Brooks, The New York Times)

“[Thinking, Fast and Slow] is wonderful, of course. To anyone with the slightest interest in the workings of his own mind, it is so rich and fascinating that any summary would seem absurd.” (Michael Lewis, Vanity Fair)

Definitely a favorite.

At first I thought the book sounded interesting, but I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy my time listening. I very much enjoyed my time listening, and I learned a lot too. great book.

Great learning experience, inappropriate format

I loved the learnings provided by this book, specially the first parts. Some of the studies are so mind blowing that are hard to believe.

Nevertheless, the format is wrong.
Firstly, it references to a fair number of figures and graphs of a PDF that is not provided and secondly, it presents a number of exercises and formulas that are really hard to follow by hearing.

Insightful and we'll written

This book did an excellent job communicating brilliant ideas into language and stories that were easy for even a novice to follow. The author masterfully presents his Noble prize winning work in a manner that was a pleasure to listen to and explore.

Sanity in ordinary public life

This is a not a dissertation of WHAT to think, but rather HOW to think. Kahneman’s insights have set me thinking about how to proceed with sanity instead of retreating from current public madness.

mind opening

If you have interest in psychology you will love this layman's approach to uncovering the beauties and faults of our mind's systems of processing.

Arrogance, BIas, Self Certainty

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I'd definitely have the author simply give the information from the studies he did rather than telling the audience what to think about the outcome. He spends some of the time attacking other professionals and making statements that seem to subtly be intended to convey how much cleverer he is than they are. For example, he talks about the foundation brought about by Bill Gates investing in small schools but that how according to the results of empirical studies that the results of student learning within small schools are simply more volatile in their results rather than actually being consistently better or worse than the performance within larger schools. Despite the questionable accuracy via usually never having a full sample of everyone in question when it comes to relevant respondents for a certain statistic and the false sense of security implicated in having a fixed number regarding statistics overall, The author seems very sure of himself when it comes to the outcomes of the studies he suggests and that bias to me feels more like a sort of intellectual chest pounding than any profound insight that I should be noting. There is a chapter in the book that addresses anchoring, which is a way of saying that we will have certain preconceptions in a certain situation when we have been given a sort of reference point that can often influence human decisions. In this chapter he introduces the concept of suggestion, meaning that a person can influence a certain reaction into being merely by suggesting its existence. It seems situationally ironic to me that it seems to be what he's doing throughout the entire book by naming his studies and then telling us what to think about the outcome after being given the subject matter and the data that he suggests. Should not he should be using his intellect to help us find other interpretations and possibilities so we can choose among them the most likely outcome that we can find for ourselves? Does the truth not exist in a realm of possibilities? Why are we only being given limited information in the form of his conclusions, delivered in a self certain way at that? In short, I can register the implications that he's making but I'm constantly having to make note of points at which I disagree with how self-certain he is. As far as I've experienced, although the truth can be expressed in a range of ways, the easiest way to initially understand the truth is to simply realize that it exists independently of our understanding of it and to be open to the other potential options until consistency in one facet or another seems to reasonably point at a specific outcome. I think anything analyzed severely enough can be made to seem preposterous but in a realistic way, when open to any option or interpretation that presents itself, consistency in certain outcomes given common circumstances and one controlled variable, usually the truth will come forth that way as long as we are aware about the dynamics of the situation in question. This can be without us listening to some extremely self-certain individual who appears to be harboring loads of biases. Also, I'd use simpler vocabulary and I'd use less morbid subject matter in some of the statistical examples he uses because is this book more about showing how smart he is or enlightening the public?

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Patrick Egan?

I was fine with the narrator though I don't mind hearing Matt Damon

Did Thinking, Fast and Slow inspire you to do anything?

To not be impressed by Nobel Prize winners because human flaws seem ubiquitous across the entire spectrum of our species

Any additional comments?

His intense willingness to judge people based on general group affiliation betrays something notably conservative: in group favoritism and outgroup derogation. Things like this are not unbiased and to me, and the truth and bias seem to be polar opposites. The truth to me represents a range of things that are true in and of themselves and true, also making other things true, to further degrees depending in a situational way based on other factors. There is no absolute truth independent of our own biased means of observance that we will ever be likely to access, usually, other than our ability to simply sit back and watch it exist. To me the difference between truth and perception is that truth exists in and of itself and perception is what we talk about. Perception seems able to mirror truth but at any given moment can diverge without our awareness of its divergence whatsoever. Knowing this, I am not inclined to let the fact that a group of experts as awarded a Nobel Prize to a man influence me not to use my truest sense of reality to question him and the material based on the flaws they betray.

Great book, makes you think about interactions

The idea are linked to economic but the applications are real life. what we think and how we act are often in direct contrast and this book helped understand why. Much more here than can be process in the short run but powerful and well presented.

Great insight to better decision making

Excellent book and I'm better off for having read it. Parts of the book were repetitive but that may have been intentional to be sure everyone reading it understands. I could have done without some of the repetition. That said, it's a must read for anyone that makes decisions! This book already paid for itself.

Most insightful book I’ve read in 10 years.

Long but excellent! Terrific book. Very insightful. X x x x x x x x x x x

Cool, maybe more reading than hearing

The book is awesome, to say the least. It contains the content expected from a nobel prize in economics.

My only disgust is with the audio version, because there are figures that you have to look in order to understand the material. Outside of that, this is a 10/10 book.